Business Analyst: What is a SQL query execution order?

Execution order — how SQL processes queries.

Order:

1. FROM (and JOINs)
2. WHERE
3. GROUP BY
4. HAVING
5. SELECT
6. DISTINCT
7. ORDER BY
8. LIMIT

Example:

1SELECT country, SUM(amount) as total
2FROM orders
3WHERE year = 2024
4GROUP BY country
5HAVING SUM(amount) > 10000
6ORDER BY total DESC
7LIMIT 10;

Why it matters:

• Understand query behavior.
• Debug issues.
• Write efficient queries.